Motherhood and health in the Hippocratic corpus: does maternity protect against disease?

King, Helen (2013). Motherhood and health in the Hippocratic corpus: does maternity protect against disease? Mètis. Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens, 11 pp. 51–70.

Abstract

After introducing the links between motherhood and health in Hippocratic medical texts, including the roles of midwives and men in childbirth, this paper explores the reproductive status of Phaethousa of Abdera in Epidemics 6. I argue that the term 'epitokos', one of those used for this woman, means far more than 'who had previously given birth' and that the Arabic versions of Galen's commentary on this text make it clear that the epitokos is a woman who is exceptionally fertile, to the point where any cessation in her normal pattern of repeated pregnancy endangers her life.

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